General

Politics of the Republic of Cyprus takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Cyprus is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the House of Representatives. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Cyprus is a divided island. Since 1974, the legal government (The Republic of Cyprus) has controlled the south two thirds, and the separatist Turkish Cypriot authorities the northern one-third. The Government of the Republic of Cyprus has continued as the sole internationally-recognised authority on the island (NB the UK is also internationally recognised with respect to the SBAs), though in practice its power extends only to the Greek Cypriot-controlled area.

The division of Cyprus has remained an intractable political problem plaguing relations between Greece and Turkey, and drawing in NATO, of which both Greece and Turkey are members, and latterly the European Union, which has admitted Greece and Cyprus and which Turkey has been seeking to join for over twenty years. The most recent developments on the island have included the reopening of the border between the two sides, and the failure of an attempt to reunify the island under the terms of a United Nations-sponsored initiative guided by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

The House of Representatives (Vouli Antiprosópon/Temsilciler Meclisi) has 59 members elected for a five year term, 56 Greek Cypriot members by proportional representation and 3 observer members representing the Maronite, Roman-Catholic and Armenian minorities. 24 seats are allocated to the Turkish community.

Cyprus has four exclaves, all in territory that belongs to the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia. The first two are the villages of Ormidhia and Xylotymvou. Additionally there is the Dhekelia Power Station, which is divided by a British road into two parts. The northern part is an enclave, like the two villages, whereas the southern part is located by the sea and therefore not an enclave —although it has no territorial waters of its own.

The UN buffer zone separating the territory controlled by the Turkish Cypriot administration from the rest of Cyprus runs up against Dhekelia and picks up again from its east side, off of Ayios Nikolaos (connected to the rest of Dhekelia by a thin land corridor). In that sense, the buffer zone turns the south-east corner of the island, the Paralimni area, into a de facto, though not de jure, exclave.

Overview

Country name : conventional long form: Republic of Cyprus conventional short form: Cyprus local long form: Kypriaki Dimokratia/Kibris Cumhuriyeti local short form: Kypros/Kibris note: the Turkish Cypriot community, which administers the northern part of the island, refers to itself as the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC)

Government type : republic note: a separation of the two ethnic communities inhabiting the island began following the outbreak of communal strife in 1963; this separation was further solidified after the Turkish intervention in July 1974 that followed a Greek junta-supported coup attempt gave the Turkish Cypriots de facto control in the north; Greek Cypriots control the only internationally recognised government; on 15 November 1983 Turkish Cypriot "President" Rauf DENKTASH declared independence and the formation of a "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" (TRNC), which is recognised only by Turkey